PM admits Govt has done all it can to keep cost of living down

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been accused of giving up on working families, after admitting he has done all he can to ease fuel and grocery price pressures.

Transcript

VIRGINIA TRIOLI, PRESENTER: He made them the centrepiece of his election campaign, but now Kevin Rudd's been accused of giving up on his so-called working families.

The Prime Minister was in damage control today, after yesterday admitting he's done all he can to ease price pressures.

The Coalition says six months into the new Government, Mr Rudd's already out of touch.

From Canberra, Kirrin McKechnie reports.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE, REPORTER: As the fuel price threatens to break through the $2 barrier.

KEVIN RUDD, PRIME MINISTER: It's just been going up and up and up and up now for a long, long time.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE: ... the Prime Minister's election mantra of keeping cost of living pressures down has come back to haunt him, as he admits his Government's done all it physically can.

KEVIN RUDD: There's no silver bullet on petrol prices. If there was, I'm sure we would have done something about it earlier on.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE: That's not good enough for the Opposition and it's selected another of Kevin Rudd's campaign slogans to ram home its point.

BRENDAN NELSON, OPPOSITION LEADER: It's taken Mr Rudd only six months to be out of touch and out of ideas. Australian's might not have expected a silver bullet on petrol, but they deserve a lot more than a Government that's firing blanks.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE: Mr Rudd's on the defensive.

KEVIN RUDD: What I'm doing is honouring what we said we'd do prior to the election in each of those three measures. But I concede, at best they help at the margin.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE: And insists it's simply out of his hands.

KEVIN RUDD: I can't control the global price of oil. That's been fuelled by a whole range of factors: the rise of China, the rise of India, the fact that the Iraq War has impeded for some time the global supply of oil. There are factors way beyond the control of a national Government such as ours.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE: The Prime Minister's office is at pains to make clear Kevin Rudd never actually promised during the election campaign that petrol prices would be lower under a Labor Government, but it's a distinction the Opposition is happily choosing the disregard.

MALCOLM TURNBULL, SHADOW TREASURER: Kevin Rudd became Prime Minister by persuading people that he would bring petrol prices and grocery prices down. And he has done nothing in his Budget to address that. He's paying people to watch the prices go up. And for him to say there's nothing he can do is a betrayal of everything he said in the lead-up to the election.

BRENDAN NELSON: Mr Rudd seems to be giving up on Australian families. He might be a quitter, but I'm not.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE: Dr Nelson says what Mr Rudd should do is adopt his proposal to slash the fuel tax, but the Prime Minister's not interested.

KEVIN RUDD: Five cents on excise, well that's being consumed it would seem in a couple of weeks of movements in the global price.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE: And while Brendan Nelson's fuel excise plan is finally starting to gain traction in its own right, another Liberal MP has reignited the Liberal leadership speculation.

TONY ABBOTT, LIBERAL FRONTBENCHER: I think it would be fair to say that the heir apparent is now Malcolm Turnbull.

BRENDAN NELSON: As far as I'm concerned, I'm very committed to the leadership of the Party, doing these hard yards.